FAQ's

Q. Will I be qualified and carry out electrical installations after I complete any training provided by you?

A. It all depends on your previous electrical installation experience; if you have little or no electrical installation experience, we would strongly recommend that you seek further advice from a recognised scheme provider or enrolment body prior to any work that you propose to do; however, if you are already involved in the industry and you are successful in passing the appropriate accredited exams and any necessary practical assessments, you may be able to start installing – however, we would still suggest that you check with a competent person’s scheme provider or enrolment body.

Q. There seems to be a lot of training providers offering the same courses to you – why should I chose Total Electrical Training?

A. Quite simply, we care and we listen to you, the customer – we will never try and persuade you to undertake training that isn't appropriate for your needs. Possibly unique in the industry, Total Electrical Training provides completely unbiased advice, so whether you are a new entrant, an experienced electrician or you are a large contracting or FM organisation, we will talk to you and provide you with the best training that money can buy.

Q. I have heard from other training providers, that if you fail an examination, that you have do the whole course again…is that true and what do you do?

A. If you are unfortunate and you fail an exam, with us, it most certainly is not true! Of course, it does depend upon which the exam you originally took – multiple choice “e-volve” are normally available to delegates after approximately 1 week and no, you do not have to attend another course. If your examination was a written paper, we will advice you as to an appropriate “plan” however, we will never say that you must do the whole course again. Please bear in mind however that City and Guilds written examinations have nationally “examination set dates” and these are normally advised to us by City & Guilds.

Q. Why does it take so long for you to let me know what my written examination result is?

A. OK – lets dispel a few urban myths – If you are taking a computer/PC exam, using the “e-volve” system, you will know what your results more or less straight away, and we will give you a “score report”, which will give you your provisional result. However, the official certificates are normally dispatched by by City and Guilds, to us, and we in turn send them to you - it should normally take approximately 2 to 3 weeks for you to be in receipt of your certificate. Please bear in mind that we are at the "behest" of City and Guilds and sometimes, especially at busy times, it can take longer for us to post your certificate off to you.

If the scheme still has a written examination; i.e., City and Guilds 2396, then these papers are marked by external and independent City and Guilds appointed examiners – naturally, these examiners have to mark each paper accurately and fairly and as such, it can take over 45 working days before we get the formal notification of results. Once again, we are entirely at the mercy of City and Guilds, however, rest assured that we will chase up result notifications for all of our delegates as we have your interests at heart.

Q. Do I have to wait for my e-volve examination results before you will carry out the practical assessments for City and Guilds 2391-50, 2391-51 or 2391-52

A. This is a good question! Total Electrical Training has never had a policy of "wait and see" In other words, we do not wait until your City and Guilds e-volve examination results are known; seeing whether you have passed or failed your written examination before running your practical assessments. Our view is a simple one: you have to wait long enough for your written results, and frankly we have a real and genuine interest in you and your certification, so why the delay!

Q. Do the examination questions keep changing, for example, the 17th edition examinations and some of the City and Guilds written examinations?

A. To make sure that delegates are being tested robustly and fairly, all City and Guilds questions are under continuous scrutiny; the question bank is under constant review and consequently, questions that you might see may well be replaced or rotated. All question banks are invariably being changed. We can only but strongly advice delegates, not to rely on external downloaded questions from the Internet or from other sources - these sources of questions are renowned for providing at best, misleading information and ate worst, poorly worded explanations and completely inaccurate answers - you have been warned!

Q. Do you accept delegates with any special needs, e.g., dyslexia, deafness or other physical disabilities?

A. Plain and simple: Yes! All we ask is that you tell us when you are booking your course as to the nature of any difficulties that you may have and we will do everything we can to provide you with prior support and ongoing support whilst you undertake your chosen course with us.

Q. I am very confused about “Part P” – I have spoken to other training companies, some of whom are suggesting that I will need to spend considerable sums of money and that I will have to attend a 4 to 8 week training course and then and only then, will I be “Part P” registered. What is your advice as this whole Part P thing is not clear to me!

A. “Part P” references BS7671:2008 - we are currently on amendment No. 1, which was published in 2011. Part "P" is relatively easy to understand, unfortunately and with the ensuing confusion surrounding changes taking place in 2013, as you can imagine, has provided a small minority of some unscrupulous training companies with the excuse to engage in a thinly veiled campaign of misinformation and some highly questionable selling techniques, thus giving legitimate training providers a bad name – “Part P” simply covers electrical safety in domestic dwellings in England and Wales. If you want further unbiased and above all, accurate information about “Part P”, please call us on our main number 0800 170 7007 and we will probably save you a lot of frustration, time and importantly, probably a large sum of money!

For the definitive word on Part P we have this external link for you to download:

We are constantly reviewing all of our training courses, including the range of Part P "training bundles", that we are currently offering. We are accredited and approved to deliver the EAL series of NVQ's level 3 awards which in some cases, may enable new entrants to achieve full QS compliance. However, there is still uncertainty as to whether an NVQ alone, will be accepted by the main competent persons scheme providers - either way, with the right qualifications and underpinning knowledge on all the regulations affecting domestic dwellings; from Part "A" right the way through to Part "P", Total Electrical Training primary aim is to ensure that you get the right qualifications.

Q I hear from other training providers that they guarantee an examination pass - some even say they have 100% passes…..do you say this?

A. City and Guilds provide what are regarded as industry standard qualifications - these are serious qualifications that involve working with electricity – electricity can kill and often does - Any examination in this field has to be equally be taken seriously by the delegate – so whilst we understand that you want to pass your exam, it is the case that the exams are set to be a thorough test of your knowledge and so, in our view, there is no such thing as a “guarantee” of a examination pass.

That said, we will of course train you and prepare you thoroughly so that you are endowed with the necessary underpinning knowledge and skills to pass both multiple choice, written or practical assessments.

Any person that says that they have a pass ratio of 100% needs to be viewed with a bit of caution!

Q. I heard from a mate of mine that he had done a 2 week course with another training provider, and was told that is an electrician – do you do this?

A. Once again – it depends upon your prior experience – clearly, and common sense tells us all what the likely answer will be; someone who has had no electrical installation or very little installation experience would find it very difficult to embrace and fully understand the intricacies of what is effect, a training course condensed into 2 or 3 weeks - ask yourself this question, would you be able to have the confidence to go out and rewire or carry out a full initial verification process on a domestic dwelling after just 2 weeks in the classroom. Don't get us wrong, we know that we all need to get experience, and it is tempting to rush into something that promises so much - more often than not, if a 2 week course promises so much, it probably won't deliver and invariably will be a disappointment. We also know that experience doesn't come overnight, however, rest assured, we really are on your side.

Our simple advice again is, talk to us call us 0800 170 7007 - we are open from 9.00 am in the morning until 5.00 pm in the evening, Monday to Friday - outside of these times, please leave us a message.

And we say again, we at Total Electrical Training will never ever give you either bad advice or the wrong advice - it is just not in our interest to do this - if you are still needing any further advice on Part P entrance requirements, talk to one of the 5 main competent person’s scheme providers or one of the main enrolment bodies.

Don't forget, our advice is free, unbiased and we are really here to help you.

Q. I want to carry out electrical tests on both single phase and three phase systems – can you help?

A. Yes we can – thankfully we now have an excellent City and Guilds accredited training course and qualification called City and Guilds 2392-10….if you call us, we will be able to help you.

Q. How can I pay for my course?

A. We accept cheques, all major credit and debit cards, and Internet bank transfers, Bacs and Chaps.

We also accept small deposits - please call us on 0800 170 7007 for more information

Q. What time does the course start and end?

A. We ask that you arrive at the training centres at the very latest by approximately 9.30 am – don’t worry though as we will e mail or send you full joining instructions, maps, satnav co-ordinates etc, prior to your chosen course date.

Q. Can you say if my chances of getting a job are going to be better once I get my qualifications?

A. Whilst there is no substitute for work based experience, the world we live in today demands that you are able to show that you understand the “why” as well as the “how”. It is the case that as the job market has become much more competitive, especially with the prevailing economic conditions, if you are able to show that you are qualified, this will significantly improve your chances of employment.

Q. I am a complete beginner – can you help me?

A. We can provide you advice and we can also provide you with some of the initial training and qualifications – However, you will probably need to go and seek some work based experience in the industry – we can assist you with this though.

Q. Do you provide all the equipment and tools?

A. We provide you with everything – tools, testers, notebooks…in fact everything you need.For testing and inspecting courses, if you have your own test equipment, it has an up to date calibration certificate, you are more than welcome to bring this along with you if you are being practically assessed.